November 3, 2017 (New York, NY) – This week, CEO of Cambridge Global Advisors (CGA) Jake Braun was awarded the O’Reilly Defender Award for Research at the annual O’Reilly Security Conference in New York City. The award “celebrates those who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, creativity, and collaboration in the defensive security field.” It was given to Mr. Braun for his recent contributions in the “Voting Machine Hacker Village” at DEFCON and for increasing awareness around cyber threats and vulnerabilities in U.S. election and voting infrastructure.

The “Voting Village” was an innovative three-day demonstration (July 27-30, 2017) held in Las Vegas at DEFCON – the world’s largest, longest-running hacker conference – that assembled more than 25 pieces of election equipment including voting machines and pollbooks still widely used in U.S. elections today. The Voting Village made them accessible to 1000+ hackers who were encouraged to test the technology and expose cyber vulnerabilities for educational purposes. The event’s concept was born out of U.S. intelligence reports regarding Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s recent confirmation that voter registration databases in at least 21 states were breached last year.

Mr. Braun shared the O’Reilly Defender award with several other “Voting Village” colleagues including Matt Blaze (University of Pennsylvania), Joseph Lorenzo Hall (Center for Democracy & Technology), Harri Hursti (Nordic Innovation Labs), Margaret MacAlpline (Nordic Innovation Labs) and Jeff Moss (DEFCON). Last month, this six-person team released a report on the Voting Village findings. Together, the team has been elevating concerns around vulnerabilities in U.S. election equipment and networks and is currently working to assemble stakeholders critical to invoking policy change at the federal, state and local level ahead of nationwide elections in 2018.

Speaking of the award, Jake Braun said: “The Voting Village was about exposing the weaknesses in our voting systems and finding ways to educate others, especially in light of what we know about Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 Presidential Election. I am immensely proud of this award, which serves as a recognition that voting security is more than just a cyber or hacker issue. Protecting the vote is indeed a national security imperative that requires our leaders band together to find solutions.”

In addition to his CEO role at CGA, Mr. Braun currently serves as a faculty member at the University of Chicago where he teaches cybersecurity policy. He is also a former White House and Public Liaison for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and remains an advisor to DHS and the Pentagon on cybersecurity issues.